High speed printing apparatus



July 14. 1 4 v. o. WILKERSON ETAL 3,141,170

HIGH SPEED PRINTING APPARATUS 4 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed June 50, 1959 m GATE 54 INPUT 50 INFORMATION REGENERATIVE INVENTORS CHARLES B. SMITH VICTOR 0 W/LKERSON July 14. 1 v. o. WILKERSON ETAL 3,141,170

HIGH SPEED PRINTING APPARATUS Filed June 30, 1959 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 FiG.4 F A I ifl United States Patent O 3,141,170 HKGH SPEED PRINTING APPARATUS Victor 0. Wilkerson and Charles B. Smith, Vestal, N.Y.,

assignors to International Business Machines Corporation, New York, N.Y., a corporation of New York Filed June 30, 1959, Ser. No. 823,905 21 Claims. (Cl. 346-74) standable form at the output of the machine, and a most desirable type of output is a printed record. Since the known data processing machines are not only extremely fast but are relatively expensive, if the output information is not rapidly taken out of the data processing machine by printing or the like the capabilities of the machine are not fully realized. For this reason there has been considerable development of an art on high-speed printers capable of printing quite rapidly to provide a printed output from an electronic data processing machine.

The known types of high-speed printers are of various constructions such as a rotating wheel carrying typedefining slugs on the periphery thereof and a plurality of hammers adapted to be selectively actuated when a selected type slug is in printing position relative to a printing form. In this known type of printer the rotation of the wheel must be at a very high rate of speed and the operation of the printing hammers cooperating therewith must be extremely rapid to accomplish the printing without smudging. Usually, an entire line of information is printed while the printout form is stationary, then the form is advanced for the printing of the next line. For the printing of a large number of lines in a short period of time, this intermittent movement of the printout form creates tremendous mechanical problems as well as a disturbing noise. Furthermore, the linespacing time is lost time relative to the printing cycle. The high-speed printer of this invention overcomes the enumerated disadvantages of the prior art by providing constant printing on a continuously moving form. The printing is accomplished without mechanical impact by type character defining members which are stationary and a rotary transducer which cooperates therewith for selectively recording at random on a continuously moving record member, the recorded characters are then printed out by known means during movement of the record member.

It is a primary object of this invention to provide a high-speed printing apparatus in which the printout form may be constantly moving during the printing operation and in which there is no intermittent feed for line-spacing and hence lost printing time.

It is also an object of this invention to provide a highspeed printing apparatus utilizing less energy in a longer period of time to generate each character to be printed and in which the movement of the printing record medium relative to the type characters is only as fast as the speed of the output printed form.

It is a further object of this invention to provide a means in combination with a high-speed printer whereby information may be constantly precessed through a storage member and a printing mechanism to permit a constant movement of an intermediate record member during the recording of different lines of information to be printed.

Other objects and advantages of this invention will be pointed out in the following description and claims and illustrated in the accompanying drawings, which disclose, by way of example, the principles of this invention and the best mode which has been contemplated of applying these principles.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a schematic perspective View illustrating the entire combination of the high-speed printing apparatus and associated parts of this invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic illustration of a transducer of this invention and its associated stationary characterdefining members which are positioned outside of a curved path of an intermediate record medium.

FIG. 3 is a modification showing somewhat similar to FIG. 2 in which the stationary character-defining members are positioned inside the curved path of the moving intermediate record medium.

FIG. 4 is an illustration of the random printing obtained utilizing the apparatus of this invention and illustrating in the right-hand portion thereof an arrangement of the stationary character-defining members and the skew of the rotating transducers.

FIG. 5 is a graphical illustration of the position of the transducers and the stationary type-defining members during each scan of the transducers.

FIG. 6 is a graphical illustration of the precessing of information between the storage medium and the printing mechanism to allow constant record feeding through the printing mechanism.

In general, this invention contemplates a high-speed non-mechanical printer which is adapted to printout on a constantly moving form. Character-defining members are supported by a stationary drum which may be either outside or inside a curved path of an intermediate record member. A plurality of transducers in a skewed row are rotated within the drum and these transducers are selectively energized at the desired time to record an image of the character to be printed on the intermediate record member. The character may be transferred from the intermediate record member to a printout form in a manner known in the arts of magnetic, electrostatic or photographic printing. The information desired to be printed is constantly precessed through a storage means to the transducers thereby permitting random recording during movement of the transducers. A skew of the transducer array and of the position of the stationary characters allows serial actuation of the transducers and recording in line perpendicular to the movement of the intermediate record member.

Referring to the drawings, FIG. 1 illustrates the invention in which magnetic printing is utilized. In this form, a magnetizable intermediate record member, such as magnetic tape 10, is guided in an endless loop over a driveroll 12 and a transducer-carrying roll 14. The tape it) is driven by drive-roll 12 at a relatively slow rate of speed compared to the speed of rotation of the transducercarrying roll 14, which roll functions as a guide for the tape 10.

The transducer-carrying roll 14 has, in the illustrated embodiment, two diametrically opposite rows of electromagnetic transducers 16. A curved stationary support 18 carries a plurality of character-defining members 20, FIG. 2. The number of transducers 16 extending across the width of transducer-carrying roll 14 corresponds in a number to the number of columns desired to be printed, there being one transducer for each column. The characters defined by members it) are arranged in columns longitudinally positioned with respect to the motion of tape 10, the number of columns of members 20 corresponding to the number of columns to be printed. The members 20 are further arranged in rows transversely positioned with respect to the tape movement. Each column contains all of the characters in any set or font of characters to be printed. There is, therefore, one transducer 16 in each position which is associated with one column of members 20. This is illustrated in the right-hand portion of FIG. 4 wherein the five columns of numerals indicate that there are five-column print positions, and each font consists of ten digits, -9, inclusive.

Selective energ'ization of a desired transducer 16 as the transducer sweeps past its associated column of character-defining members 20 will create a magnetized latent image in a desired position on the tape in a manner known in the magnetic printing art. The characters are recorded latently in the tape 10 at random times by transducer 16, as will be explained hereinafter, and as a line of the tape 10 moves out from under stationary character support 18 this line of the tape has a complete line of information in the form of latent character images recorded therein. Then the tape passes a developing station indicated schematically at 22 wherein the recorded latent image is dusted for developing and subsequently the developed image is printed out on a moving paper form 24 at a printout station defined by rollers 26 and 28. Then the tape 10 is de-magnetized or erased at erasing station 30 and cleaned at a cleaning station 32. The developing, printing, erasing and cleaning are known in the magnetic printing art. The clean tape is then ready to repeat the above described cycle of operations.

FIG. 3 illustrates an alternate embodiment in which a curved stationary support member 18 1 carrying the character-defining members 2%) is positioned inside the path of the tape 1%) and thus serves as a guide for the tape. The character-defining faces of members 20 may be flush with the surface of its support 180, therefore they provide no impedance to the movement of tape 10. The transducers 16 are rotated as described above with one end closely adjacent one end of the character-defining members 20 to provide selective magnetization thereof. A closed flux path is provided through the magnetizable tape 10 by a soft iron member 34 positioned outside but adjacent the tape 10.

The means for providing selective energization of each transducer 16 is schematically shown in FIG. 1. Each transducer 16 for each column position is connected by a conductor 36 to a slip ring 38, there being one separate slip ring for each transducer and each column position. Each slip ring 38 is contacted by a separate brush 40 which is adapted to supply the energy thereto at selectively required times for energizing its associated transducer 16. A ring counter 42. is provided having a stage for each column position and hence for each transducer. The ring counter is stepped by a signal from a head 44 cooperating with a prerecorded timing track on a storage drum 46. Storage drum 46 has its shaft 4-3 mechanically coupled in a l to 1 ratio to the shaft of the transducer-carrying roll 14, such that drum 46 will rotate in synchronism with roll 14.

A line of information to be printed is placed on the drum 46 in coded form one character at a time, through conductor 50 and a regenerative gate 52 by transducers 54 which record in parallel fashion the bits of a character in a first track on the surface of drum 46. A second track on the surface of drum 46 serially contains a group of coded characters which are adapted to be read parallel by bit by transducers 56. Each coded character, as successively read by transducers 56 corresponds to the position of the rotating transducers 16 relative to a particular row of stationary character defining members 20. Since the transducer-carrying roll 14 and drum 46 have an interconnected drive, the position of the recorded information in this second track on the surface of drum 46 will always correspond to the position of the transducers 16.

A short distance in the direction of rotation past the read in station Where transducers 54- are located, there is a read out station for the first track of drum 46 having a plurality of transducers 53 adapted to read out the coded information desired to be printed parallel by bit and serially by the character contained in the columns of a line. The outputs from transducers 56 are fed to a coincidence gate 60 to determine if there is a coincidence between the character to be printed and the identity of the row of members 24) which is at this time adiacent the transducers 16. Of course, if there is a coincidence, a particular transducer 16 is energized to record in the proper column the image of the character to be printed. The output of transducers 58 is also normally fed back through regenerative gate 52 and is re-recorded on the drum 46 by transducers 64 positioned degrees away from the read-in station as defined by transducers 54. The regenerative gate is blocked only for enough time to enter a new line of information into storage during each transducer scan. The distance on the drum surface 46 between read-in heads and read-out heads 58 is sufiicient to serially store all of the characters which can be contained in the columns of one line of print. The bits of each character, of course, are stored in parallel fashion. An erasing member 66 for the first track is positioned to erase the information read out by transducer 56, as this information has, in most cases, been recirculated through regenerative gate 52 to the precessing heads 64, for re-recording on the surface of the drum 46 at a point 180 degrees away from the read-in heads 54. This arrangement will cause the information to be printed to be shifted in time and to precess through the storage device, thus allowing random printing as will be described hereinafter.

As shown in FIG. 4, the character-defining members 20 are positioned in horizontal rows such that all members of a row are alike. Each vertical column contains a complete scet or font of characters. FIG. 4 illustrates only a five-column row and a ten-character set. Each row of character-defining members 20 is slightly skewed upwards from left to right as shown by line 71 with respect to a horizontal line 72 perpendicular to direction of movement of tape 10 and transducers 16. Each row of transducers 16 is also skewed with respect to line 72 as indicated by the dotted lines 70 and 70'. The transducers are skewed downwards from left to right such that they will serially sweep over each row of character-defining members from left to right. Hence, the transducers 16 may be energized serially from left to right when printing is required. The character-defining members 20 are skewed as shown to compensate for the continual movement of the tape 10 during the printing operation so that the latent line of print is positioned exactly perpendicular to the direction of tape movement. This is required because the transducers 16 are energized from left to right and the right most character members 20 in a particular row do not place a latent image on the tape 10 until after the left most characters of this row have been scanned. Furthermore, because of this serial left to right energizing of transducers 16 and because of their high speed, which is much faster than that of tape 10, they must be skewed in a direction opposite from the skew of members 20. This is to insure that when the right most transducers are energized, they will still be adjacent character members 20 in the same row that had previously been scanned by the left most transducers.

The random printing produced on the moving tape 10 by the arrangement on the right-hand side of FIG. 4 is 5 shown at the left-hand side of FIG. 4. The top line is completed and contains all of the digits desired to be printed including the 9s. As the tape continues to move, this top line will be developed and printed out. The line second from the top contains the digits from up to and including the 8s, and also happens to be completed, since there are no more vacant columns contained therein. This line must, however, move past the top 9s row of members 20 on its way to the developing and printing stations, although no 9s will be placed in the tape at this point. Similarly the third line from the top contains digits through 7 and has two blank columns thereon for the filling in, as tape 10 moves upward with other digits which may be 8s or 9s, which would complete the line., Similarly, the fourth line from the top contains all digits through 6s, the fifth line all digits through Ss, etc. This illustrates the random printing capable by the subject invention wherein a row of transducers 16 passes each row of character-defining members 20 to accomplish random printing within the line of tape which is adjacent to a particular row of members 2%) at this time. The distance d between the axis of the Os printed on tape 10 in the left-hand side of FIG. 4 and line 72 is the distance that the tape 10 travels during one complete pass of the row of the transducers 16 over the entire 10 rows of character-defining members 20. In other words, as shown in FIG. 4, the transducers of skew line 70 have just completed printing the 9 in the right-hand column of the top line on tape 10, and the transducers defined by skew line 70' are getting ready to print the Os in a new line on tape 10 which has no information printed on it as yet. At the next interval of time for energizing a transducer 16, the left most transducer in skew line 70 will be over the character-defining member 20 in the left most column of the 0 row, and if a 0 is to be printed, coincidence gate 60 will allow this transducer 16 to be energized so as to record a latent image of O in the left most column on tape 10, in a line beneath the bottom line shown in FIG. 4.

The random printing of information and the precession of the information to be printed is further graphically illustrated in FIGS. 5 and 6, respectively. In the example chosen, the lines of information to be printed are only three columns wide and the font of type-defining members in each column contains six separate characters A to F. In the example the following information will be recorded in successive lines on tape AFE in line 1, BEE in line 2, DFB in line 3, BFF in line 4, DEA in line 5, DCF in line 6 and ACC in line 7. Seven lines are considered sufficient to clearly illustrate the concept, as the operation becomes repetitive after a number of transducer scans equal in number to the character-defining members in a font with the exception of new information being added to the storage system a line at a time. In FIG. 5, the stationary type-defining characters are illustrated in a time-defined manner, that is, instead of being one under another, the separate time the transducers 16 pass adjacent each row is set out side-by-side to illustrate the continuous flow of printing. During the time of a complete scan the transducers pass over each row of members 20 and therefore this time can be divided into intervals equal in number to the number of rows, or characters in a font which, in the example, happens to be 6. The tape 10 continuously moves during one scan of the transducer an amount equal to the distance d shown in FIG. 4 as explained above.

In FIG. 6 the above-mentioned first information track on the drum is represented as a flat surface divided into sectors and the drum is moving in the direction indicated, i.e. from left to right. The precess-read-in heads 64, the read-in heads 54, the read out head 58 and the erasing member 66 are all shown in their respective positions relative to each other and to the drum surface such as was explained in connection with FIG. 1. The surface of the drum between the precess-in heads 64 and the read-in heads 54, which is equal to one-half the circumference of the drum because of the displacement, is divided into a number of sectors each adapted to serially store the maximum number of characters in a line of information to be printed. In this example, this number is three. The total number of sectors between 64 and 54 is equal to the number of characters in a type font, in our example SIX.

In the example illustrated, the first line of information AFE is read in to the drum serially by character and parallel by bit through heads 54. This line of information moves along with the drum surface and is read-out serially by character by the read-out heads 58 to be compared in coincidence gate 6% with the permanently recorded characters read by heads 56. The transducers 16 at this time are passing adjacent to the row of stationary As at the same time that line 1 of the tape 10 is moving adjacent to this row of As. At the exact time that the A character is read by heads 58, the left most transducer 16 is passing adjacent to the stationary A member 20 in the left most column of its row. Furthermore, a permanently recorded A character is also being read from the second track on drum 46. A coincidence occurs at gate 60 which transmits a pulse to gates 42. Gates 42 are synchronized with drum 46, by means of the timing track and head 44, so that only the open gate is the one attached to the left most transducer 16 which is at this time adjacent the left most column position of the stationary A character-defining row. This transducer is energized to record an A in column 1 of line 1 on tape 10. There is no coincidence between the succeeding two A character signals picked up by heads 56, and the second and third F and E letters of line 1 which are successively read by heads 58. Therefore, no additional printing appears at this time in the first line on tape 10.

As the information of the first line is read out by readout heads, it is regenerated through regenerative gate 52 and re-recorded by precess-in heads 64 on the surface of the drum at a point distant from heads 54 as illustrated in FIG. 6. Both the drum and the transducer row continue their synchronized rotation, however, at the beginning, since no other lines of information have been as yet placed on the drum none of the transducers are energized as they sweep over stationary character rows B to F. During the sixth time interval of the first transducer scan, the second line of information to be printed is read into the drum by the read-in head, this line being BEE. This second line is placed on the drum directly in front of the first line AFE. Line BEE is now immediately read out by heads 58 when the transducers begin their second scan at stationary row A. However, there being no As in the second line BEE none of the transducers are energized. Then as the transducers continue sweeping past the stationary character-defining member support 18, they immediately pass under the row of Bs, and at this time the information of the first line AFE is also being read out as shown in FIG. 6. Furthermore, a series of three Bs are successively read out by heads 56, but since the first line contains no Bs there is no coincidence and therefore no printing at this time. It should be appreciated at this point that since tape 10 is constantly moving, its first line, in which the character A had been previously printed during the first transducer scan, has now moved adjacent the stationary B row so that any B characters which may be present can be printed out. The transducers 16 continue on their second pass, and at the last time interval therein, when transducers 16 are adjacent the F stationary row, a new third line of information DFB is entered by heads 54 directly in front of the second line BEE. As can be seen and as described above, after each line of information is serially read out by read out heads 58 and compared in gate 60, the line at the same time is normally re-recorded at a point on the drum so as to be shifted or precessed in storage.

Continuing the example, at the sixth complete scan of the transducers 16, six complete lines will have been s stored in the sectors between the precess-in and the readin heads, and as each line passes the read-out heads 58, the transducers will be adjacent a different row of stationary character-defining members 20 so that each line will be serially sampled for a coincidence of a row and column position of a transducer. For example, during the sixth scan as the transducers pass adjacent the row of As, the sixth line of information DCF is presented for comparison. Since no coincidence is found, no recording will be accomplished. Similarly, when the fifth line DEA is presented immediately thereafter, the transducers 16 will be adjacent the row of Bs, but again no printing Will take place. When transducers 16 are finally adjacent the stationary F row, the first line of the tape 10 will also be positioned adjacent the same row. At this time, the first line AFE is read from the drum, the F in the second column position will cause a coincidence and cause a transducer 16 to record the F in this column position in the first line on tape 10. Also, during the sixth time interval of each scan when the transducers are adjacent the F row, the regenerative gate 52 is blocked so as to prevent the line of information being read out from being stored back on the drum. The line AFE may be removed from storage, since it has been completely recorded on tape 10. A blank sector on drum 46 is therefore created so as to allow room for a new line of information. As usual, a new line of information is read into the drum through heads 54 during the sixth or last time interval of a scan, and is caused to precess in a manner similar to that before. The first line of information, which has now been completely recorded on tape 10 because the number of transducer scans has been equal to the number of characters in a font of character-defining members 20, is removed from storage by the erasing member 66 and blocked regenerative gate 52. The operation continues with the drum sectors between the precess-in head and the read-in heads full of all but one of lines of information. At the end of the next succeeding transducer scan, another line of information has been completely printed so that it is discarded from the storage system by erasing and not re-recording.

The arrangement of the storage system to allow the constant precession of information together with the serial read-out features, and the skew arrangement of the transducers and the character-defining members, allows the tape 10 to move constantly during the recording of information thereon. That is, this arrangement allows the transducer-carrying roll 16 to rotate continuously and print at a selective time a character, as determined by the input information, in any character position. Thus, there is a constant flow of information through the system and a random recording on the tape 10 during continuous motion of the tape and transducers. The recorded information on the tape 10 is developed and printed out in a known manner without utilizing mechanical impact and while continuously moving at a speed required for the desired printing rate.

Although the invention has been illustrated with limited type sets and limited numbers of columns for the sake of simplicity of explanation, the device could be used to print 125 columns of information in each line by two sets of 125 transducers 16 mounted on drum 14, each set being displaced 180 from one another. With this arrangement the stationary type carrier 18 would have 125 columns of type fonts, with 48 unique characters contained in each font.

For printing at a rate of 1,000 lines per minute, the tape 10 will be moving at a relatively low speed (2.8 inches per second for .167 inch lines). During the recording of any character by the transducer the tape and paper will have moved only 0.002 inch. The transducer carrying drum 14 however, will be rotating at 500 rpm. and if it is inches in diameter it will be traveling at a peripheral speed of 654 feet per second.

Although the invention has been illustrated with magnetic printing, it is contemplated that the intermediate record member and the transducer and the print-out station could be arranged in any known manner, taught by the prior art in the fields of electrostatic or photographic printing.

While there have been shown and described and pointed out the fundamental novel features of this invention as applied to the preferred embodiment, it will be understood that various omissions and substitutions and changes in the form and details of the device illustrated and in its operation may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit of the invention. It is the intention, therefore, to be limited only as indicated by the scope of the following claims.

What is claimed is:

1. A high speed printing apparatus comprising; a plurality of stationary character defining members, a record medium, movable adjacent said stationary character defining members, at least one transducer adjacent said record medium and said stationary character defining members, means for moving said transducer relative to said record medium and character defining members, means for storing signals representative of characters to be recorded, means for energizing said movable transducer in response to said stored signals when they are adjacent the character defining member corresponding to the desired character to be recorded to selectively record said character, and means for printing out from said recorded character on said intermediate record medium.

2. A high speed recording apparatus comprising; a plurality of stationary character defining members, a record medium movable in juxtaposition to said stationary character defining members, a plurality of transducers movable adjacent said record medium and said stationary character defining members, means for storing signals representative of characters to be recorded, and means for energizing said movable transducers when they are adjacent the desired character to be recorded for selectively recording said character.

3. A high speed printing apparatus for printing with out impact on a constantly moving output form, said apparatus comprising; a constantly moving intermediate record member, a plurality of stationary character defining members positioned adjacent said intermediate record member, at least one movable transducer movable in juxtaposition to said stationary character defining members and said intermediate record member, means for storing signals representative of the characters to be printed, means furnishing a representation of the position of said transducer during its movement adjacent said stationary character defining members, means for comparing the character to be printed with the position of said transducer and for energizing said transducer if a comparison exists to selectively record the desired character on said intermediate record member, means for developing the recorded image on said intermediate record member and means for printing out said recorded image.

4. A high speed printing apparatus as defined in claim 3 wherein said intermediate record member is a magnetizable tape and said developing is accomplished by dusting with a magnetic powder ink and said printing out is accomplished by pressing a paper form against said developed image.

5. A high speed printing apparatus for printing without impact on a constantly moving output form, said apparatus comprising; a constantly moving intermediate record member, a plurality of stationary character defining members positioned adjacent said intermediate record member, said character defining members being arranged in columns, each containing a font of characters and in identical rows, a plurality of transducers arranged in a row and movable in juxtaposition to said stationary character defining members and said intermediate record member, there being one transducer for each column of character defining members, means for storing signals representative of the characters to be printed, means furnishing a representation of the position of said row of transducers during movement adjacent said stationary character defining members, means for comparing the character to be printed with the position of each of said transducers and for energizing a particular transducer a comparison exists to selectively record the desired character in a particular place on said intermediate record member, means for developing the recorded image on said intermediate record member and means for printing out said recorded image.

6. A high speed printing apparatus for printing on a constantly moving output form without utilizing mechanical impact, said apparatus comprising; a movable record member, a plurality of stationary character defining members positioned adjacent said movable record member, a movable transducer adapted to be moved relative to and in juxtaposition to said record member and said stationary character defining members and to be selectively energized for recording on said intermediate record member any of the characters defined by the stationary character defining members, means for storing signals representative of the character desired to be printed, means for reading out said signals from said storage means, and comparing them with the position of said transducer adjacent a particular character defining member, and means for energizing said transducer if a comparison occurs between the character desired to be printed and the position of said transducer, means for precessing the read out information through said storage means to present the characters to be recorded for comparison at all positions of said transducer adjacent said stationary character defining members, and means for developing and printing out the recorded characters.

7. A high speed printing apparatus for printing on a constantly moving output form without utilizing mechanical impact, said apparatus comprising; a movable record member, a plurality of stationary character defining members positioned adjacent said movable record memher, said character defining members being arranged in columns each containing a font of characters and in rows of identical characters, skewed row transducers adapted to be moved in juxtaposition to said intermediate record member and said stationary character defining members and to be selectively energized for recording on said intermediate record member any of the characters defined by the stationary character defining members, there being one transducer in said skewed row for each column of stationary character defining members and the movement of said skewed row being substantially transverse to said columns, means for storing signals indicating the character desired to be printed in each column position of the output form, means for reading out said signals from storage and serially comparing them with the position of each of said transducers in said skewed row adjacent particular row of character defining members, and means for energizing said transducer if a comparison occurs between the character desired to be printed and the position of said transducer, means for processing the read out information through said storage means to present the signals representing the characters to be in different lines for serial comparison with the position of each transducer during all possible positions of said transducers as they move adjacent said stationary character defining members and means for printing out the recorded characters.

8. A high speed printer utilizing an intermediate recording medium and adapted to printout on a constantly moving printout form, said printer comprising; an intermediate recording medium moving at a constant speed and adapted to receive information desired to be printed, a printout record form moving at a constant speed in juxtaposition to said intermediate record member and adapted to receive the information carried thereon, means guiding said intermediate recording medium over a curved path, a plurality of normally de-activated transducers, at least one for each column of information to be printed, said transducers adapted to be rotated inside said curved path, a plurality of stationary character defining members positioned in each column position adjacent said record medium and at the portion thereof wherein said rotary transducers cooperate with said record medium, and electronic means for selectively activating said transducers as they pass selected stationary character defining members at the desired location of the moving record medium for accomplishing high speed random recording on said record medium.

9. A high-speed printer comprising; an intermediate recording medium adapted to receive characters to be printed and moving at least partially in a curved path, a printout record moving in juxtaposition to said intermediate recording medium at at least one point in the travel thereof and adapted to receive the information from said intermediate record medium, a plurality of stationary members defining fonts of characters to be printed, said characters being positioned adjacent the curved path of said intermediate record member in rows of identical characters, the number of rows of characters representing the number of columns to be printed, the number of characters in a font determining the number of rows of identical characters, a plurality of transducers, one for each column position in said rows of stationary characters, means for rotating said transducers Within said curved path traversed by said intermediate record medium, and electronic means for selectively energizing said transducers as said transducer and said record medium are adjacent the desired stationary character to be generated in any particular position on said intermediate record member.

107 A device as defined in claim 9 wherein said transducers are skewed relative to the rows of identical characters and said transducers are serially interrogated column by column as they pass the position of the stationary character-defining members to determine if a character is to be printed at that particular position of the intermediate record member.

11. A high speed printing apparatus adapted to print out on a constantly moving form without mechanical impact, said apparatus comprising; an intermediate record member, means for continuously moving said record member, a plurality of stationary character defining members, means for supporting said stationary character defining members adjacent a portion of said intermediate record member during the travel thereof, said stationary character defining members being arranged in a plurality of columns, each column containing a font of character defining members and the number of columns and fonts being equal to the number of characters to be recorded in eachline on said intermediate record member, identical character defining members of each font being adjacent each other in rows, a row of movable transducers, one for each column position, said transducers being movable adjacent said intermediate record member and said stationary defining characters and adjacent thereto to selectively record on said intermediate record member any of said characters defined by said fonts of character defining members, means for selectively energizing said transducers as they pass said movable record member and such stationary type characters to selectively record the desired type character in the desired position on said intermediate record member during the passage of transducers past each row position of said stationary character defining members, and means for developing and printing out the recorded image on said intermediate record member.

12. A high speed printing apparatus as defined in claim 11, wherein each row of character defining members is skewed with respect to the lines of information recorded to compensate for the movement of said intermediate record member during serial scanning of each row of character defining members by said transducers.

13. A high speed printing apparatus as defined in claim 11 wherein said means for selectively energizing said transducers comprises; a storage member, means for reading in information to said storage member and means for reading out said stored information at a predetermined time, means for comparing the read out information with the position of each of said transducers relative to each stationary row of character defining members, means for serially interrogating each of said transducers at each column position in each row to selectively record if there is a comparison between the information to be printed and the position of said transducer, means for precessing the read out information through storage such that said transducers will be comparing information during the passage thereof past each row and each column position for different lines of information to be printed.

14. A high speed printing apparatus as defined in claim 13, wherein said storage member comprises a rotatable storage drum and when said movable transducers are rotatably mounted, means connecting said drum and said transducer mounting for synchronous rotation, and wherein said precessing means includes a regenerative gate connecting the read out means to precess read in means, said regenerative gate being open during a portion of the rotation of the storage drum but being blocked when a new line of information is read into said storage drum.

15, A high speed printing apparatus comprising; an intermediate record member, means for driving and guiding said record member in a closed path, a plurality of stationary character defining members positioned adjacent said intermediate record member at a portion of said closed path and adjacent a curve therein, a plurality of transducers adapted to cooperate with said stationary character defining members for recording selected characters on said intermediate record member medium, said transducers being mounted on a rotatable member which is adapted to rotate within a portion of the curved path of the intermediate record member, means for storing information to be printed and precessing said information through said storage means, means for selectively energizing the transducers, one at a time, during the passage thereof past such said stationary character defining members, and means for printing out from said intermediate record member.

16. A high speed printing apparatus as defined in claim 15 wherein said transducers are skewed with respect to the longitudinal axis of said rotatable support and wherein such stationary character defining members are arranged in columns, each column containing a complete font of characters and the rows transverse to said columns containing identical characters whereby said transducers may serially pass over each character defining member and they may be selectively energized.

17. A high speed printing apparatus as defined in claim 16 wherein said skew of said transducers is related to the rows of stationary character defining members such that when serially interrogated the time intervals between interrogations of characters in a row will be equal to the time interval between interrogation from the last character in one row to the first character in the next row.

18. A high speed printing apparatus adapted to print out on a constant moving output form without realizing mechanical impact, said printer comprising; an intermediate record member movable at a constant relatively slow speed, a means for guiding said record member during the movement thereof in an arc of a circle, a plurality of stationary character defining members, means for supporting said character defining members adjacent said curved path travelled by said intermediate record member, a plurality of transducers, means supporting said transducers for rotation inside the curved path defined by said intermediate record member, said transducers being adapted to cooperate with such stationary character defining members to record character images 12 on said intermediate record member when said transducers are selectively energized, means for storing information to be printed and selectively energizing said transducers during the rotation thereof to selectively record the images of the desired stationary character defining members on said slowly moving intermediate record member, and means for printing out the recorded image on said intermediate record member on an output form.

19. A high speed printing apparatus comprising; an intermediate record member in the form of magnetizable tape, means for driving said record member in a closed path a portion of which is an arc of a circle at a speed which is equal to the speed of an output printing form, a plurality of stationary character defining members, means for supporting said stationary character defining members in an arc of a circle adjacent the intermediate record member, said stationary character defining members being arranged in columns, each column containing a complete font of characters and in rows transverse of the columns containing identical characters, the position of the rows of stationary character defining members being slightly skewed to compensate for the movement of said magnetizable tape, a plurality of transducers, means for rotatably mounting said transducers, there being at least one transducer for each column of stationary character defining members, the array of trans ducers being skewed relative to the axis of the line of information to be printed such that they will serially pass adjacent each character in a row of stationary character defined members and the time interval between the passage of adjacent transducers over each character in a row will be equal to the time interval during passage of said transducers between the last character in one row and the first character in the adjacent row, storage means for storing information desired to be printed, said storage means adapted to hold said information a line at a time, means for reading out the information from said storage means serially by column, means for serially comparing the read out information with the position of each of said transducers adjacent rows and columns of stationary character defining members, means for energizing said transducers if a comparison exists in any column position, means for precessing said line of read out information through said storage means to provide information to be read out as said transducers pass each row of stationary character defining members according to the line to be printed, means for developing the recorded image on said intermediate record member, and means for printing out from said developed image without impact.

20. A high speed printer as defined in claim 19 wherein there are two diametrically opposite skewed rows of transducers on said rotatable support, said storage means is a rotatable magnetic drum, said precessing means includes precessing read in heads for reading in information to said drum, said precessing read in heads being positioned diametrically opposite input information read in heads and said read out means being positioned on the circumference of said drum a distance past the read in heads in the direction of movement of said drum which distance is equal to the amount of said drum surface required to store one complete line of information to be printed, a regenerative gate operatively connected to said read out heads and said precess read in heads together with said information to said read in heads, said regenerative gate being blocked to not allow the precession of information to said processed read in heads when new information is being added to said storage member.

21. A high speed printer adapted to print out on a constantly moving output form, said printer comprising; a record member moving at a constant relatively slow speed and adapted to receive information desired to be printed on said output form, a print out form moving at the same speed as said intermediate recording medium in juxtaposition to receive information carried thereby,

a plurality of stationary character defining members, means for supporting said stationary character defining members adjacent said intermediate recording member, a plurality of transducers, means for rapidly moving said transducers in juxtaposition to said intermediate recording member and said stationary character defining members, and means for selectively energizing said transducers as they pass selected character defining members to record on said intermediate record member any desired character to be printed, means for developing the recorded image on said intermediate record member, and means for printing out from said developed image on to outset form.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Avery et alt Nov. 20, 1956 Devol Oct. 29, 1957 Devol Oct. 29, 1957 Rueger Sept. 2, 1958 Nelson Sept. 2, 1958 Conrad Aug. 30, 1960 FOREIGN PATENTS Great Britain July 13, 1955 

7. A HIGH SPEED PRINTING APPARATUS FOR PRINTING ON A CONSTANTLY MOVING OUTPUT FORM WITHOUT UTILIZING MECHANICAL IMPACT, SAID APPARATUS COMPRISING; A MOVABLE RECORD MEMBER, A PLURALITY OF STATIONARY CHARACTER DEFINING MEMBERS POSITIONED ADJACENT SAID MOVABLE RECORD MEMBER, SAID CHARACTER DEFINING MEMBERS BEING ARRANGED IN COLUMNS EACH CONTAINING A FRONT OF CHARACTERS AND IN ROWS OF IDENTICAL CHARACTERS, SKEWED ROW TRANSDUCERS ADAPTED TO BE MOVED IN JUXTAPOSITION TO SAID INTERMEDIATE RECORD MEMBER AND SAID STATIONARY CHARACTER DEFINING MEMBERS AND TO BE SELECTIVELY ENERGIZED FOR RECORDING ON SAID INTERMEDIATE RECORD MEMBER ANY OF THE CHARACTERS DEFINED BY THE STATIONARY CHARACTER DEFINING MEMBERS, THERE BEING ONE TRANSDUCER IN SAID SKEWED ROW FOR EACH COLUMN OF STATIONARY CHARACTER DEFINING MEMBERS AND THE MOVEMENT OF SAID SKEWED ROW BEING SUBSTANTIALLY TRANSVERSE TO SAID COLUMNS, MEANS FOR STORING SIGNALS INDICATING THE CHAR- 